President Says New Elections Should be Called Immediately, Says Ready to Meet Ivanishvili

The President of Georgia Salome Zurabishvili has reiterated her call for new elections after meeting with representatives of civil society and opposition parties. She said the elections “must be called immediately” and said she was ready to meet Bidzina Ivanishvili to discuss the issue of new elections.

At the press briefing after the meeting she said the meeting’s aim was to discuss “where we are” and stressed: “We are now at a new stage, after the OSCE/ODIHR [final] conclusions on the elections.” She stressed that Georgia’s international partners were also waiting for the document in order “to make their political decisions.”

The President said that the ODIHR’s conclusions reflect all the violations, “as well as the methods and ways in which the elections were rigged”, and that was very important. She noted that the OSCE/ODIHR, by virtue of its mandate, does not make a political assessment, but stressed that the observations contained in the document are sufficient to say, and in fact report says it, that these violations had a negative impact on the results of the elections and on the citizens’ trust.

This, she said, further strengthens the case for new elections, and there is no other solution to the political crisis in Georgia. “We have set an offensive strategy,” the President said.

“We need to know where we are going and we are going the short way. This is the news after this OSCE/ODIHR conclusion,” Salome Zurabishvili noted, adding that the new stage will be exerting every possible pressure on the regime to call for new elections.

“In these conditions, there can be no other political solution, no other real solution to this crisis, other than calling elections… There is no other option in history or in political processes to get out of the crisis, when there is no trust in elections, when there is no trust in the government, when the government has resorted to lies in order to consolidate its position, this means that everything is over,” she stressed.

“There is not much time left, especially since the Georgian Dream is trying to adopt new laws at an accelerated pace to very quickly transform us into a totally Russian regime.” The President said: “We will not allow this, we have to use all kinds of pressure, from inside and outside the country” to force Ivanishvili to call new elections, stressing that “he is the only one who makes the decision”.

Salome Zurabishvili added that “it is very easy to think of constitutional forms for this, and it does not require much negotiation”. She said: “I am personally ready to meet him whenever he wants, I know that many from outside are ready to come and put pressure on him,” adding: “New elections must be called and they must be called immediately!”

The President also said that she would be with protesters the next day and would address them in front of Parliament at 9 pm. “We will together state that nothing will work out without the new elections and this is the demand of the whole country,” Salome Zurabishvili concluded.

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian)